Etienne Jacques MacDonald

Etienne Jacques Joseph Alexandre MacDonald (17 November 1765-7 September 1840) was one of the 26 Marshals of France under Napoleon.

Biography
MacDonald was from Sedan, France, but was descended from Jacobite exiles from South Uist, Scotland. In 1785 he joined the Irish Legion of the French Army to support the United Provinces against Prussia, and he joined a regiment loyal to King Louis XVI of France during the French Revolutionary Wars. However, he married into a revolutionary family and was made aide-de-camp to Charles Dumouriez and distinguished himself in the Battle of Jemappes in 1793. He refused to desert to the Austrian Empire after the Battle of Neerwinden and was made a Major General of Brigade by France as a reward, and fought under Charles Pichegru in his invasion of the United Provinces in 1795. MacDonald was sent to join General Napoleon Bonaparte in Italy in 1797 but was too late to fight in the Italian Campaign; instead, he fought the Austrians in the Kingdom of Naples and founded the Parthenopaean Republic.

In 1800, MacDonald was made a general of the Helvetic Republic. Leading the Army of the Grisons, he aided Napoleon's 1799-1800 Second Italian Campaign but did not fight. In 1805 he gained the dislike of Napoleon after he remained friends with Victor Moreau and was not made a Marshal. However, in 1809 he was made aide-de-camp of Eugene I of Italy and fought in the Battle of Wagram against Austria. He led the attack on the Austrian center, which earned him promotion to become one of the 26 Marshals.

MacDonald was later transferred to fight in Spain, but did no fighting; his army hovered in southern France during its defense but the Spanish armies avoided his large field army and captured Toulouse, which forced him to stop his bloodless siege of Valencia in 1813. He then headed to Germany to participate in the German Campaign, fighting in the Battle of Leipzig against the Coalition. MacDonald blew up the bridges and escaped by swimming over the Elster River, but Jozef Poniatowski drowned. While France's generals deserted Napoleon, he remained loyal and gained Murad I of Egypt's sword for his fidelity. However, he missed the fighting during the Hundred Days and from 1815 to 1831 he was Chancellor of the Legion d'Honneur. He died in 1840 in Beaulieu-sur-Loire.